Every year, for the last several years, our family has gone out to dinner at our favorite sushi place to recap the previous year and look forward to the coming one. This year was no exception, although we were missing one child who was working. Each person highlights the highs and lows of the previous year. This is always enlightening for Jen and me as we hear our now-grown children address their struggles and celebrate their accomplishments. It’s fun to watch them grow in maturity and their faith. They also list their goals, and this becomes humorous because some spout hopes and aspirations while others pull out their phones and read from an already curated list. I should probably write these down so we can review them at the end of the year, but that is not really the point of the exercise.
Some of my highs and lows were moving to the Village to be closer to the church and our kids’ school. We love the Village life. The church is only five minutes away, and the school is right around the corner. It has radically changed our lifestyle. We eat at home more often, and the house we live in is spacious enough that we enjoy being there. We’ve had multiple parties for birthdays, graduations, and going away, as well as many team dinners.
The low of the year was my continuing knee saga. I had torn the meniscus in my left knee in 2024, and it took until March of 2025 to get it addressed and surgery set up. A week before surgery, my ekg came back abnormal. This sent me to a cardiologist, CT scans, and other appointments. It took two months to get an appointment with a cardiologist! This pushed back my surgery to July. In the process, I discovered that I had no blockages in my heart (which caused my abnormal EKG). After finally having surgery and hoping to regain my mobility, both knees were struck with some very painful arthritis. I have been working on that since.
Everybody needs to be able to assess where they have come from and look forward to where they are going. Too many people refuse any kind of accountability, even self-accountability, and too many people refuse to look forward out of a fear of failure. We pacify ourselves with excuses like “It is what it is” and “I’m just going with the flow,” but in reality, those are just coping mechanisms. The truth of the matter is that if we don’t have any aspirations, eventually we will have nothing to live for.
I am not a fan of resolutions, but I am a fan of consistent, gradual improvement. There are many areas in my life that I need to see that happen. One thing I do know. If I don’t today, I will never get there. Consistency is the key to life. You can’t lose 10 pounds in a week and expect to keep it off, but you can lose 1 to 2 pounds and maintain. The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step in the right direction. Start it today.
Chuck Musselwhite 
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